DES MOINES, IOWA – The Drake
University football team has a date with history when it will travel to the
country of Tanzania in Africa to play the first American football game ever on
the continent.

Drake will play an all-star team
from Mexico, the CONADEIP All-Stars, representing the CONADEIP Conference, in
the inaugural Global Kilimanjaro Bowl on May 21, 2011. The game will be held in
Moshi, Tanzania, under the shadows of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The trip will begin on May 17, and
following two practices, a football clinic for local youth and a safari, the
two teams will meet on the field May 21.

After the historic game, players
from both Drake and the CONADEIP All-Stars will be doing community service
projects in and around Moshi. The primary project will be working at the Kitaa
Hope Orphanage in Moshi with children between four and 12 years old, while also
constructing an addition to the orphanage.

The
final phase of the trip will feature players and coaches from both teams climbing
the imposing 19,340-foot Mount Kilimanjaro - the tallest mountain in Africa! The
teams will ascend Mount Kilimanjaro by different
routes, culminating their climbs by meeting at the summit and hoisting their
respective university and national flags in a moment sure to be captured by
media worldwide and celebrated by everyone connected with these teams and their
universities.

“I am overwhelmed with excitement
as this long time vision is now becoming a reality,” said Drake head football
coach Chris Creighton. “This trip allows for us to bring the game we love to a
place and to a people who have never experienced it. This trip also provides a
unique opportunity to serve those who are far less fortunate than we are and to
hopefully make a positive difference. Finally, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro as a
team will be one of the greatest challenges we will ever face.

“The Drake football program is
about more than winning games in the fall each year. Our program’s vision is to
make playing football at Drake one of the most incredible experiences of our
lives. This trip exemplifies who we are and what we are about.We want to do something special with
our lives.”

Global Football, a Texas-based
football events organization, is coordinating the trip. Patrick Steenberge,
president of Global Football, has produced football events in 18 different
nations since 1996, working with groups like the NFL, Notre Dame, Penn State,
Super Bowl Host Committees, the American Football Coaches Association, Pop
Warner, USA Football and national American football federations around the
globe.

“This is a truly groundbreaking
and unique overseas visit that will spread the appeal of American football onto
the African continent,” said Steenberge. “These two teams represent high
quality private universities from the United States and Mexico. But this will
be much more than a football game, which is noteworthy enough, as the teams
will undertake a number of memorable and worthy projects.”

“Participation in the Global
Kilimanjaro Bowl and the accompanying activities in Tanzania are a perfect
coming together of Drake University’s mission and values,” said Drake Athletic
Director Sandy Hatfield Clubb. “We strive to provide opportunities that will
facilitate leadership learning and prepare student-athletes to be responsible
global citizens and to become champions of positive change.

“There could be no better partner
and opponent than the CONADEIP All-Stars from Mexico with their shared
commitment to excellence in academics and athletics.”

Drake’s Mexican opposition will be
selected from the CONADEIP Conference that will start its inaugural football
season this fall, having restructured to provide a highly competitive schedule
for the long-dominant private universities in Mexico, which previously competed
under the established ONEFA organization.

“It is a
great pleasure for CONADEIP to have the chance to develop this project
with Drake University,” said Eduardo Martinez de la Vega, CONADEIP
president and Athletics and Health Promotion Director at Universidad
Iberoamericana. “We are very proud to represent the very best of academic
and sport colleges in Mexico and now we will be able to offer
something beyond sports, and that is the chance to have a unique life
experience.

“To travel with students from a neighboring
country, to visit a completely different continent for us, to experience the
contact with people who live in such different conditions and to enjoy a visit
to Kilimanjaro will be something for our student athletes to remember forever.
We are very excited to be a part of it and look forward to more
opportunities like this one. We are sure that this is just the beginning.”

The orphanage service project will
be coordinated through the efforts of Iowa Resource for International Service (IRIS),an Iowa-based nonprofit organization
based in Ames, Iowa. Its mission is to promote international understanding,
diversity and peace by connecting Iowans to communities worldwide. Since 2007,
IRIS has coordinated the exchange of more than 70 high school students from
Tanzania through the U.S. State Department’s Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and
Study Program.

“Through the Global Kilimanjaro
Bowl, representatives from three countries across the globe will work
side-by-side to instill the volunteer spirit in the young people of Tanzania, “
said Del Christensen, who is the executive director with IRIS. “The Drake team
and their Mexican collegiate counterparts will be working with IRIS alumni,
students and other young Tanzanians on a variety of volunteer projects. Through
three days of hands-on work, players will collaborate with the young people of
Tanzania to leave a lasting legacy not only on the ground, but also in the
minds of the people of Moshi.”

H.E. Ombeni Sefue, Tanzania’s
former ambassador to the U.S. and Mexico, who was recently appointed Tanzania’s
permanent representative to the United Nations, said: “I am pleased to hear of
Drake University’s trip to Tanzania, where you will play the first American
football game on the continent of Africa.I am indeed honored to welcome you!”

Family and fan travel packages
will be available through Anthony Travel beginning on Sept. 15. They will
include round-trip airfare, accommodations, local tours, service projects, a
once-in-a-lifetime safari, game admission and more.

Drake fans can also support the
team on their historic trip by going to www.godrakebulldogs.com
to donate funds to offset individual costs of travel.